


A Treasure for Twopence

by mandykaysfic



Series: 12 days of Christmas 2014 [6]
Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 06:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3109922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandykaysfic/pseuds/mandykaysfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A snippet from the Russell family's time in Australia. <br/>Sybil can't resist looking in the windows of book shops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Treasure for Twopence

**Author's Note:**

> On the third day of Christmas...three delightful sights
> 
> (I think the sight of displays of books is delightful!)

"Mother, look!" Sybil Russell pointed to the display of gaily jacketed books in the window of the large Melbourne second hand book store. "Three Elsie Oxenhams titles, including _Patience Joan, Outsider_. And there's a Dorita Fairlie Bruce. Do we have time to go in?"

Madge looked at her wrist watch and hesitated.

"Please," wheedled Sybil, forgetting she was a young woman of twenty. She pressed her nose up against the glass. "I'll only be a few minutes."

Madge laughed and shook her head. She knew her eldest daughter only too well; it would take more than a few minutes to get her to leave the book shop once she'd entered. 

"Sybil, don't you think you're a little too old for these books?" Madge tried one last time to distract Sybil.

"Most of my books aren't here in Australia. You know I had to leave them behind. Besides, I never got around to reading 'Patience Joan', let alone owning a copy. Did you know they're quite collectible?" 

"Very well, but ten minutes is all we can spare."

Sybil beamed and thanked Madge as she hurried through the door, determined not to waste a moment. 

Madge followed her more slowly. Once inside, the sight of tables holding stacks of books proved too hard to resist and she chose a table in the centre of the room at random. The sign said it was the bargain table and all books were priced very cheaply. Doctor Spock's book on childcare lay next to a copy of Andrew Lang's _Red Fairy Book_. An Ursula Bloom romance sat atop a thriller with a very lurid cover. She moved them aside, now eager to see what treasures might be hidden beneath.

"Oh!"

"What is it? What have you found?" Sybil turned from the counter where she'd placed the five books she'd decided she simply must have, the copy of Patience Joan amongst them.

"Look what I've found. For twopence, no less." Madge gurgled with laughter as she held up a slim volume.

"Oh!" Sybil echoed her mother's cry and then burst out laughing as well. "Aunt Joey would be horrified," she said, when she could speak coherently once more. "I'm sure she believes everyone who buys her books keeps them for always. You can't leave it her, Mother, you'll have to buy it, you know."

"I suppose I must," said Madge.

Twopence for _Cecily Holds the Fort_ , by Josephine M. Bettany; not even classed as a collectible! What would her authoress sister say when she heard?

END


End file.
